2009 Madrid Women

The 2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series continued its exciting start to the year with some breathtaking races at round two in Madrid, Spain.
Andrea Hewitt outsprinted four other competitors to win in a photo finish ahead of Swedens Lisa Norden in the womens race as they crossed the line together in 2:05:58, with the last ditch effort paying off for the Kiwi who suffered at the opening race of the series in Tongyeong when she crashed early on the cycle leg. Jessica Harrison from France finished in third just one second behind, with Germanys Christiane Pilz and Sarah Haskins from the USA trailing in having run most of the 10km together.

Haskins was the first out of the swim along with compatriot Sarah Groff along with the Japanese pairing of Adachi and Ide and Harrison from France. Australias Annabel Luxford was also towards the fore and she broke early on the bike with Haskins as they led for the opening couple of laps around the Caso de Campo park.

Renowned strong cyclists, Lisa Norden and Switzerlands Daniela Ryf, pulled the chasing pack back to the leaders, however the increase in pace fronted by an attacking Vanessa Raw from Great Britain, dropped both the reigning world champion, Helen Jenkins from Wales and Tongyeong bronze medallist, Ide as they suffered over the hilly course.

Exiting for the run the lead pack of 13 held an insurmountable 1:37 advantage over the chasers group which included an exasperated 2008 world cup series champion, Samantha Warriner from New Zealand. The Kiwi had worked tirelessly to try and bridge the gap to the leaders and carried that mindset onto the run as she clocked the fastest split time to run from 14th up to seventh.

At the front both Norden and Hewitt went straight to the fore; however repeated surges from Haskins, Harrison and Pilz ensured the front five stayed ahead of the chasing Swiss pairing of Ryf and Di Marco Messmer. Their order remained the same until the closing stages when Hewitt and Norden launched their attacks as the athletes entered the finishing chute.

Nordens height advantage and longer stride length pulled her away from Hewitt, however the New Zealander rallied in the final few metres to clinch victory with a last ditch effort reminiscent of compatriot Bevan Dochertys victory in Tongyeong at the opening Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series fixture. The top two waited momentarily for final confirmation of the result by the ITU technical officials after analysis of the photo finish imagery.

Ive never been in a photo finish before, said Hewitt. We ran together for the whole run, pacing off each other. The Kiwis have had a great start to the season and were just going to keep going for the rest of the season like this.

Norden was equally pleased with her result having missed the start of the season with injury. I didn’t have any expectations going into the race, she admitted. I had two weeks of running build up, but have been doing lots of swimming and biking, and that was in place today. I was feeling pretty good on the last lap and tried to give energy for the sprint, but Andrea came up really fast on the inside. I gave it everything. I surprised myself on the run; I’m very happy with the outcome.

In the overall standings 2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Rankings Switzerlands Magali Di Marco Messmer moved into the top position on the womens side as her sixth place finish combined with seventh in the opening leg in Tongyeong, Korea gave her a total of 1043 points, just 19 points ahead of the consistent Jessica Harrison from France. Australias Emma Moffatt drops one place to third with 1018 points as her early season second place finish at the Mooloolaba ITU World Cup was added to the overall score.